World of Nerds

Five friends spend every Monday night eating Chinese food from the Golden Dragon. Howard has Mu Shu Pork, Leonard has Spicy Szechuan Tofu, Penny has Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, Raj has Beef with String Beans, and Sheldon has Chicken and Broccoli: diced, not shredded, with brown rice, not white, low-sodium soy sauce and the good hot mustard from the Korean grocery.

After dinner, they play a role-playing game called World of Nerds.

In this game, each player takes on a character belonging to a different race of creature, has a different occupation, uses a different sort of weapon, specializes in fighting a particular kind of monster, and has a different skill level.

Can you determine the characteristics of each player's character from the following clues before someone sits in Sheldon's spot?

Hint

Answer

Howard is the halfling and a level 10 thief who fights kobolds with a dagger.
Leonard is the hobbit and a level 16 merchant who fights orcs with a crossbow.
Penny is the elf and a level 20 archbishop who fights chimeras with a bolo.
Raj is the gremlin and a level 32 sorcerer who fights giants with fireballs.
Sheldon is the ogre and a level 24 paladin who fights harpies with a mace.

Explanation:

The first step is to determine the actual skill levels of the five players.

The lowest level is 10, held by the character using a dagger (clue 8).

From (4), the character using a crossbow has an unknown level, let's call it x; the paladin has x+8 and Raj has x+16. Note that x must be greater than 10 and less than or equal to 16, or else x+16 would be greater than 32.

The elf is none of these four players (2, 11, 6), but has a skill level of 10 more than one of them (6). This could be 20, x+10 or x+18.

One skill level has to be 24 (1), two skill levels must have a difference of 4 (7) and one skill level must be twice another (3).

If x=11, then the skill levels are 10, 11, 19, 27 and the elf's is either 20, 21 or 29. None of these is 24; therefore, x isn't 11. Similarly x isn't 12, 13 or 15.

If x=14, then the skill levels are 10, 14, 22, 30 and the elf's is either 20, 24 or 32. This provides a skill level of 24, but for the elf, instead of the ogre; therefore, x isn't 14.

Therefore, x=16 and the skill levels are 10 [dagger], 16 [crossbow], 24 [paladin=ogre], and 32 [Raj]. The elf's skill level must be 20, not 26, in order to satisfy clue (7). This means the elf fights chimeras and Leonard's character uses the crossbow.

Now that we know the skill levels, we can start building a list of the players, starting with the first clue:

Since the elf has a skill level of 20, the kobold fighter is level 10 (6), and uses the dagger (8). Penny's character doesn't use the dagger (8), and neither does the ogre, who is level 24. Therefore the thief does: